


talk to me of spring and fall

by rikacain



Category: Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, M/M, The second pairing is kinda hinted, immoral science experiments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-11-29 06:38:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/683953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rikacain/pseuds/rikacain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Or don't talk at all; show me.)</p><p>In which Q enters a new world, makes a new friend and loses his way back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by the lovely consultingteadrinker, who is also my beta reader. It's supposed to be a Hades and Persephone AU but I took huge artistic liberty and ran with the concept. Everyone's happy with it in the end, though.
> 
> I apologise for the horrid summary. I'll come up with something better later.
> 
> Warnings for abduction. And an almost callous attitude towards life, but that may be just me.

“Welcome to the Nestis Science Centre. In the interest of science itself, please remember to observe all safety and caution rules and regulations as you carry out any potentially harmful experiment.” The prerecorded voice of the centre’s greeting plays as Q flashes his ID to the scanner and steps into the lift, bringing him down to Basement-14 level.

The greeting continues. “Please also remember to record any and all findings and experiments within the system logs for supervision. Staff are reminded that any unauthorised experiments will result in their consent to being used as experimental material, unless that particular experiment is successful. Please refer to your booklet of Rules and Regulation for further clauses and conditions.” The lift flashes past each level - he winces as a gloop of ectoplasmic matter hits the glass in front of his face before the lift speeds further down. “Have a pleasant day.”

The intercom switches off just as Q arrives at his floor - where all his colleagues are typing away into their individual computers. He sweeps his gaze over them, checking that none of them are playing Galaga before heading over to his own cubicle, where the screen is dark. With his approach, the monitor blinks to life and into the system registration window, where he keys in his username and passcode.

‘Welcome, Mr. Q,’ the pop-up flashes before him before returning to the project he was working on. He takes a moment to admire his own coding before cracking his knuckles.

There is work to be done.

* * *

It’s a well-known fact that everyone’s own project is top-secret, and that none of them are at liberty to share it with each other due to a non-disclosure agreement signed before they are given permission to embark on said project. This does not stop them asking for advice from one another.

“How’s bio-engineering going?” Eve asks James as she slides into the cafeteria seat. “Managed to stop your subjects from growing an extra arm yet?”

“Yes,” James answers succinctly. “But they happen to grow hard instead.”

Q snorts into his tuna wrap while Eve regards him with amusement. “What about you, Q? Anywhere near entering into the cyberworld?”

“You’re lucky you have high clearance,” Q grumbles as James looks unfazed. “No, there’s a problem with the coding. I checked over the parsing and all, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong.”

“Well, keep working, boys.” Eve smiles as she takes a bite of her own sandwich, before frowning. “This tastes weird.”

“Let me try.” James and Q each takes a bite from the sandwich, before spitting it out onto a napkin. “Do you think this is - “

Their mobiles rings simultaneously, where ‘Thank you for participating in our survey. How would you rate the sandwich that you have just eaten?’ pops up onto the screen. James gives a grimace and Eve sighs before discreetly shoving the sandwich into the trash can and plucking Q’s wrap out of his fingers.

(‘Ten out of ten,’ Q types later. ‘The development team should try this, it’s delicious’.

‘Your comment is much appreciated and the suggestion will be carried through.’ Q smirks and stuffs his phone back into his pocket.)

“I think I might need clearance to go further with my project,” Q tells them. “I’m carrying out my first experiment today.”

“Good luck asking,” James mutters, and Q thinks yes, good luck is needed indeed.

* * *

Q’s project is simpler to hear than it is to carry out - entering the cyberworld.

It’s almost like a bad science fiction plot, but a world made of binary codes has always stuck in his mind. Someone had already made a gun that could teleport people and objects to many destinations, so Q reasons that this should be possible too. It’s just the matter of converting real matter into a manifestation of code, so that he could enter the virtual world.

There has also been earlier attempts made, but the project was dropped. Whoever Tiago Rodriguez was, he made some impressive groundwork that Q was developing on. He couldn’t be more thankful.

Today Q attaches a small white lab rat to the machine, carefully manoeuvring the probes into place. The rat squeaks and tries to bite him, but he pays it no mind. There is an experiment to carry out.

He flips the switch and the rat goes limp. Counting to twenty, he waits before he flips the switch back up.

The rat gives a spasm, before its vitals flat-line.

Q shrugs, adjusts the coding, and reaches for another rat.

* * *

It’s only after his fourteenth rat that they finally stop dying, and after the twentieth they stop squeaking energetically, increasing their heart rate before finally dying of hyperventilation. He switches to experimentally-approved monkeys then.

The monkeys are a novelty - capable of intelligence, but not so much of emotions, making them the perfect test subjects. He’s quite sure that the higher ups have given countless medals to whomever developed them. The monkey is hooked up to the machine, and he tells it what he needs before flipping the switch.

He waits for fifty seconds, before flipping the switch back. The monkey jerks awake.

“Subject M2489,” he recites. “Identify yourself.”

It’s supposed to repeat after him. Instead, the monkey stares quizzically at him, before saying,

“Hello. My name is Raoul Silva.”

* * *

The monkey falls asleep shortly after, and wakes again. When Q asks, it repeats after him.

Very strange.

* * *

“Have the monkeys ever answered you something else other than their own assigned subject name?” he asks James and Eve. James stifles a snort into his pasta.

“You’re new,” he tells Q. “You haven’t seen them identifying themselves as Queen Elizabeth or Darth Vader. I had one that called itself Voldemort.”

Eve laughs loudly. “What did you do to it?”

“I shot it.”

(Sometimes, Q forgets how cruel (kind) James can be. God knows all those in bioengineering are.)

“Tea?” he offers Q, and Q accepts.

* * *

“Subject M2493. Identify yourself.”

“Raoul Silva. You have pretty eyes.”

It falls asleep.

* * *

Q leaves Raoul Silva out of the system logs. ‘Subjects capable of retaining consciousness after experiments,’ he writes. ‘Recommendation for human subjects advised.’

His clearance comes faster than ever, and it nags slightly at Q that the permission usually takes a week to be given.

Good luck is on your side, Eve tells him. Good for you.

* * *

He explains the premises of the experiment to the human subject, who he knows only as H374. H374 nods at him, and they carry the experiment out. Q asks him to identify himself.

“Raoul Silva,” the man says. “Don’t you have anything better to ask me?”

An idea occurs to Q. “Are you part of the cyberworld?” he asks. The man (Silva) considers, before nodding. “What is it like?”

Silva smiles at him before saying, “come and find out,” and the man faints.

* * *

‘Clearance wanted for self-experimentation’.

The permission returns within an hour. ‘Clearance given.’

* * *

“What are you thinking?” James corners him at lunch, and he drops his carton of tea. No one seems to notice. “Self experimentation? Have you gone quite mad?”

“It’s the fastest way to get results,” Q tells him. “All the human subjects I experimented on are fine, but they lack the observation skills needed for the results I want.” He tries to push the man away, but he does not budge. “I know what I’m doing, James.”

“Do you?” he demands, before pausing. “I’ll let you go, on one condition.”

“What?” Q asks tiredly.

“Let me be your assistant.”

* * *

Surprisingly, the clearance takes a week to come. His good luck may be running out.

* * *

James straps him into the chair, and attaches the probes to the side of his head. Q had already explained to him what should happen, what has happened and how far this experiment should be brought to. He leaves Raoul Silva out.

“Give me an hour,” he requests.

James nods grimly, and flips the switch with more force than necessary. Q opens his mouth to remonstrate him but suddenly the world goes black and he thinks he can see code running behind his eyelids, spiralling away…

He opens his eyes that he has never closed. The place before him is magnificent - blue lines criss-crossing all over the place, crumbling towers of code. He looks down at his hands - they’re tangible, and he’s successful.

“Hello.” 

He turns around - and a man with bleached blond hair and a charming suit stands before him. The man gives him a small wave.

“Raoul Silva,” he tells Q, but Q has already known.

“Q,” he tells him, and Silva’s grin widen as he repeats after Q.

“Welcome to the virtual world.”

* * *

Silva is well-versed with the realm of codes and programming. He shows Q everything there is to be known - how to manipulate the coding by arranging the strands of blue themselves, how to create a program from scratch. It is like hacking, only that they are doing it physically and not through a screen that only shows letters and numbers.

(Q does not notice, but all the while Silva stares at him like a hungry man who has not eaten for days. Silva notices, as Q explores this new world he also pays close attention to the time on his wristwatch.)

(Outside, James refrains from flipping the switch and bringing Q back to the real world.)

It is impressive, and even more so when Silva shows him the things he builds himself - from a small abandoned town to a waterfall of crashing blue lines. Q is enthralled, and turns to his new friend with shining eyes. 

“Have you ever tried building an AI?” he asks breathlessly.

The smile Silva gives him is dark and haunting; Q feels uncomfortable for the first time.

“Yes,” Silva says, “but they simply weren’t good enough.”

* * *

_(ten more minutes.)_

“Did you ever want to go back to the real world?”

“Isn’t this world also real?”

_(nine)_

“It is, but don’t you miss your family? Friends?”

“Why would I?”

_(eight)_

“I could try getting a body for you.”

“I don’t want one.”

_(seven)_

“I’m a king here, darling. I’ve always been.”

_(six)_

“I need to go back.”

“You’re leaving?”

_(five)_

“Yes, I have to report my findings.”

“Why should you?”

_(four)_

“It’s my job.”

“Won’t you stay?”

_(three)_

“No, I have to go, my friend is waiting for me.”

_(two)_

“Well, I can’t let you go, dear boy. It’s been far too long.” He reaches out to caress the side of Q’s head and the researcher jerks back, eyes widening. Silva tugs at two small green lines and smiles benignly at him.

_(one)_

He cuts the two lines, and Q feels something wet run down his nose before he blacks out.

* * *

James flips the switch, and Q does not wake.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It got a sequel, after all! Hooray. 
> 
> Dedicated to the following people: Dan, for prompting and betaing; Gabs, for being herself.
> 
> Special mention: To never-mind-the-moon on tumblr too, because I actually got all of your messages on time and am a fail!author and a fail!person to do anything right.

Silva's hair is a patchwork of blond and fraying black lines at the very ends when he lets (makes) Q touch them. All the broken pieces of code slip through his fingers, and he can feel Silva's humanity at its thinnest where the rest is gone. He's human, but only barely just.

Silva's hands are careful and precise as they build and tear down constructs of blue lines and code. Silva's hands are soft as they caress his cheek (and steel as they hold the cheek in place when Q turns away). Silva's hands are quick to catch when Q tries to construct his own escape.

Silva is pain when Q misses home. Silva is pain when Q lashes out against him, wounded animal in a strange new environment (even if he says words so soothing after). Silva is pain as Q stays each second longer in this world.

Silva pulls him close, and Q pulls away.

* * *

 

"I'll buy you six months," she murmurs to him as they stand vigil at their fallen friend's bedside. "Convince them he's valuable. You bring him back."

He presses his lips to the back of her hand and that is 'thank you' enough for the both of them.

* * *

Today they go out into the big, wide world of the Internet, where information crashes in huge tidal waves and ebbs back in words and numbers and pictures. They phase through each firewall as Silva plucks and cuts several lines to safety. "We'd end up scorched and broken pieces of code," he tells Q while laughing.

(Later, he shows Q the red lines of burns on his back. Q does not look.)

He brings Q through the small secrets waterways of government servers, the drain holes of secure channels and the sewers of information hidden and deleted away. It gushes about them in viscous streams of black, and Silva picks out small bits and pieces of information for Q to peruse. "See," he says. "So many secrets that I know, that we can learn."

"But I don't want to," Q says, and Silva navigates them from the bottom of that hole to another pool of code, completely ignoring what he said.

Q comes to learn of Silva's capabilities as the man bypasses passwords and the most complex of security with every screen of red that falls before them. He also learns that -

("None of the superiors remember giving permission for his experiment," Eve tells him as they huddle over their oddly empty lunch table.

"But it's granted," James says, frowning. "The systems confirm it. Someone must have given clearance."

"The question is, who did?")

\- he had no chance all along.

* * *

There is a woman standing next to Silva as he plucks and reattaches the blue lines on her temple repeatedly. Q ventures cautiously over to them - wondering if there was more than two people in this virtual reality. The woman does not react as he approaches - staring straight ahead at a fixed point.

This unnerves him.

"Q," Silva calls when he notices the researcher hovering in front of the woman. "Just in time. This," and he strokes one hand down the luscious curls of her hair, "is Severine."

Severine makes no movement to acknowledge that she was introduced. Q is starting to realise who - no, what she is.

"She's an AI," Q breathes and Silva lets out a delighted laugh at his expression.

"Clever boy," he tells Q but Q is enraptured enough by Severine to ignore what Silva calls him. If this is the physical manifestation of an AI in the cyber world, Q could not be any more satisfied.

(Her eyes are still blank and vacant.)

"She's only a pretty face though," Silva suddenly says into his ear, an arm curling around Q's waist. Q immediately stiffens; Silva chuckles into his hair. "The moment I activate her…" and he pulls at a blue line running down her forehead.

She jerks once and Q sucks in a breath at the life in her eyes. Severine is almost human, if it was not for the blue lines glowing softly along her face. Silva nudges him - _go ahead_ , the gesture says.

He clears his throat. "Hello," he says hesitantly. "Severine."

She stares at him and smiles, charming. "Hello," she says. "What may I do for you?"

(Silva's smile widens.)

"Um." Q fumbles to think of a command suitable for an AI to carry out. Severine waits patiently for him. "Could you please tell me the status of Project C902?"

"Project C902 is in progress until the deadline of the fifth of June, 2556," she tells him. His eyes widen - who could be working on his project? - while Silva lets out a surprised hiss next to him. The smile suddenly slips to something darker, something unhinged. "You don't know fear," she tells Q (her eyes bore into him), her voice distorting and twanging into itself, "not until you've seen him at his weakest, his most desperate - "

"Ah, Severine," Silva says and Q is torn between calling his tone vicious or friendly, "I think that's quite enough." Severine throws herself at him and he simply swipes a handful of blue lines out of her chest. Q sees the fear, potent and so very real, in the AI's eyes before she dissolves into nothing, and they are alone again.

"Another pretty face," Silva repeats casually. Q wonders who is right.

* * *

James throws the stack of papers down onto Q's table, scanning through them for traces of any anomalies. He scans through Q's theories, Q's experiment logs and observations, and any personal note thrown into the mess. Anything and everything is scrutinised.

He finds nothing.

It is four in the morning, and he is no closer to understanding how Q can be the only unsuccessful recipient of a string of successful experiments. The coffee on the table is cold and bitter as he drinks it down.

James pinches the bridge of his nose briefly, before looking through the files again.

* * *

"You're Tiago," Q says. "Tiago Rodriguez."

The corner of Silva's mouth twitches. "I was," he agrees. His eyes follow something along Q's hairline, something Q knows to be green. He still flinches the moment Silva makes a gesture towards his forehead, and the man laughs at him for it.

"Was," he repeats.

"Was," Silva confirms with a smile. Q looks at him, his curiosity overriding any prior emotions.

"Why was?" he asks. Silva's (Tiago?) smile widens.

"Tiago went mad," he says easily. "And here I am."

"Raoul Silva," Q muses softly, and moves away when Silva leans in close. 

* * *

James asks for clearance for experiments, and Eve hesitantly gives it.

He starts with mice, just in case, before moving onto the monkeys. M2491, the only monkey from the original batch left untouched by other dangerous experiments, assists him. He straps it into the chair, attaches the probes and addresses it.

"M2491," he starts. "The objective of this experiment is to bring back data from the cyber world." Data is a really loose term James chooses to employ, considering that he has no idea how the world he's sending it into will be like. A mass of codes? A 2D rendering of this world? An exact replica of this world?

He pauses. "The second objective is to find the whereabouts of Researcher Q," he tells it, and then flips the switch.

* * *

There is a monkey on the floor.

Q stares at it, perplexed. The monkey is staring around the place before blinking up at Q. He crouches down and wonders how it got here.

"Identify yourself," he says softly, nostalgic.

To his surprise, the monkey answers. "Subject M2491," it tells him. "Objective of gathering data accomplished. Location of researcher Q is now being searched for."

His eyes widen, before holding onto the monkey tightly. "I'm here," he tells it desperately, "tell them I'm here - "

Suddenly Silva barrels into them out of the blue, ripping the monkey from Q's grasp. He scrabbles at its temple, curling his finger around a brown line -

"Stop," he shouts at Silva, and Silva actually stops and stares at him, his face carefully blank. Q is surprised, but does not dwell. "I want to know how you went to the real world with the monkey."

"Must we, dear boy?" he asks, reluctant. "I'm not going to let you try it."

"I'm not going back in a monkey's body either," he tells Silva acidly. "Will you show me how you did it?"

Silva considers. "What will you give me in return?"

"What else can you take from me?" Q challenges. "You already have my company, unwilling as it is."

Silva sighs. "And I want you willing," he murmurs. "Never you mind. I want a kiss from you."

"This is not a fairytale," Q says, deadpan.

"But it's what I want." The man's eyes glitter hard. "If I show you how I manipulated the monkey…"

It is Q's turn to consider.

"I'll kiss you."

Silva smiles, looking very much like the cat who caught the canary - before ripping out a bunch of black lines off his head and entangling it with the brown of the monkey's. They flicker, once and twice, before they disappear.

* * *

"Subject M2491. Identify yourself."

"You're new. My name is Raoul Silva."

James blinks. This was not in the logs. The monkey looks at him, curious - and it's not supposed to look curious. It's not supposed to have emotions.

"Subject… Raoul Silva," he says, trying very hard not to just follow his guts and shoot the monkey. This is already breaking protocol. "Have you found the whereabouts of Researcher Q?"

Something flashes in the monkey's eyes. "Yes," he tells James, straining against the straps. "But he's not coming back. He won't be coming back. He's staying there, with me - "

James follows his guts and shoots the monkey.

* * *

Silva crashes back down to the ground and Q hurries to his side out of instinct, helping him up. The man spits out a couple of broken codes that dissolve into the lines of blue, before standing up straight again, brushing at his white suit. Q rises with him, wary.

( _I used to wear sweaters and cotton shirts before all these suits_ , he tells Q. _But I find that suits and jackets have a rather suave charm, don't you think?_ )

"You did that to the humans too?" Q says, almost in shock. "Aren't there any effects?"

Silva shrugs. "None that I know of," he says easily, but somehow he's more tense than his usual easy-going demeanor. As if he notices Q's suspicions, the tension leaves his shoulder almost immediately and he gives Q a wide smile. "Now, how about that kiss?"

Q stiffens. Silva raises a hand to trail down his face, before curving it around the back of his neck and drawing him closer. They stay there in position, the man's lips hovering over Q's own and Q dare not breathe.

Silva pulls away, saying softly, "another time, then," and Q watches him go. 

* * *

Raoul Silva.

James knows he's missing something - Raoul Silva is never mentioned in any of Q's reports, never written down in the man's elegant script. He flips through once and twice again for good measure, but find nothing once more.

( _Have the monkeys ever answered you something else other than their own assigned subject name?_ )

He boots up the computer, and opens up the files for each experiment log. James had thought it unnecessary to review them, considering that Q stuck to the rules more often than not. The man comes into focus along with several white mice, and James pushes the cursor ahead to the first experiment with the monkey.

[“Subject M2489,” Q recites in high-definition on the computer screen. “Identify yourself.”

The monkey stares at Q, almost fascinated, ( _hungry_ ). “Hello," it says. "My name is Raoul Silva.”]

* * *

(There was something he never told us, he tells Eve later as the man (Raoul Silva) that tells Q to 'come and find out' over and over again, in his head. Something he left off the record.

I need to go after him.)

* * *

"Do you hate me?" Silva asks as they sit on top of a hill.

It's not a real hill, and not a real sky especially with dawn bleeding into night into day and into dusk; but Silva has tried his best. The colours and texture that the blue lines can form with the right manipulation of html is boundless. They sit side by side, looking up into the sky and Silva asks.

Q ponders. Does he hate Silva, this man who was trapped in the cyber world, and trapped him too? Does he hate him when he has shown Q that the cyber world Q had dreamt of is everything he had hoped it to be?

"I don't," Q finally answers. "But I miss home too."

Silva hums at his answer, and they continue looking up at the sky which is now a deep purple-blue. Q thinks that circumstances otherwise, he would have been charmed.

(When Silva kisses him later - a chaste touch and an enigmatic smile, he almost thinks of kissing back.)

* * *

"Flip the switch after twenty seconds," he tells Eve, who nods seriously. "And make sure Q's connected." They had brought their comatose friend from the infirmary and plugged him up accordingly. "I'll try and find him - but there may be a hostile in there."

Eve's hand hovers over the switch, before flipping it. His vision darkens to a oppressive black before blue lines explodes all over his sight and he is standing in an entirely new world with another man before him.

It is not Q.

"Raoul Silva," James says, and Silva smiles, cold.

"You're not in the system," he says, conversationally. "There's the status, and there's the deadline - but the researcher? Blank. This isn't strictly official, is it now?"

"Official enough to be approved," James replies testily. "Where is he?"

"James?"

He turns around to see Q standing before him; James open his mouth and -

And the world flashes white as he sees Silva lunge towards him out of the corner of his eye -

And Eve stands over him, mouth set in a worried line. "Well?" She asks, expectant.

"He's there," James says grimly. "He's there."

* * *

Q whirls onto Silva, who looks equally furious. "What was that?" he demands.

"Your assistant tried to pay you a visit," Silva says, voice drastically different from the emotion on his face.

"And why did you prevent him from doing so?" Q asks heatedly. "I'm stuck here, considering that you ripped my way back home out of my head!"

"And make you want to return back to that world?" Silva counters. "I like to think I'm more merciful than that, dear boy."

"I always want to return to that world," Q says incredulously. Silva looks disappointed.

"If I let you go," he finally says, "will you come back?"

"Yes," Q tells him, unhesitating.

(They both know he's lying.)

"I can't, my boy," Silva murmurs, looking more vulnerable than he has ever seen the man. "I just can't."

Q wants to reply (lie) that he would return,but Silva is next to him in a matter of seconds, pressing a hard object the size of a penny into his neck. He catches Q as the younger man convulses violently, gripping onto his lapels - and he lowers him gently to the floor. "It's alright," he soothes Q.

"How," Q gasps, "how is this - "

"It will be," Silva murmurs. "It'll be alright, he won't leave you now," and Q realizes that Silva is assuring himself, and not Q and panic and dread rises up his throat, choking him in his panic.

"S-Silva," Q tries to say, and perhaps he says _please_ or _I hate you_ or a mixture of both, either, or neither; but the world of blue lines and Silva's bright brown eyes fade away and everything goes black.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, my first completed WIP! There is a reason why I don't do chapter fics - I never seem to finish them. The woe of being a writer. 
> 
> Also, sorry for the delay of publishing this chapter, even if I had never given any date to look forward to. I could have done it much sooner, and I rewrote this chapter because the original ending I wanted didn't fit and I changed it to what I actually like in the end. Good for me. 
> 
> There's also me beginning life in university, and having to interact with new people; and a couple of more events that turned out taxing. I had a falling out of sorts with a friend, the same friend who requested this story. Perhaps it is a little sentimentality on my side, but I needed closure or something, to take this story off my WIP list. I'm glad I finished this.
> 
> Thank you to drelfina for looking through the last chapter of this fic. 
> 
> This is for Dan, even if she may not read this or never know of its update.

(He is standing by the sea, the cool sea breeze whipping his hair into his face. There is something abnormal with the picture, but he cannot put his finger on the anomaly. Behind him, someone winds an arm around his waist, holding him close.

He cannot say that he minds the affection.

"Won't you stay?" A low voice whispers into his ear, and Q cannot turn around to see who it is.

"I would," Q tells the air in front of him, "but I miss my friends."

"Then I'll make you forget them," the person says, and the back of his neck burns hot and sharp, stabbing needles into his skin.)

Q wakes up.

* * *

Eve hugs him close the moment he is given leave from the hospital bed. James gives him no such treatment, other than a pat on the back and a gruff 'welcome back' but Q hugs him anyway.

"Thank you," he tells James gratefully.

"He can't come over to this world?" James asks instead of saying, 'you're welcome'.

"Not without a body," Q tells him, which is a truth unto itself. He leaves out that Silva could probably manipulate this world through another medium, and James is none the wiser.

Eve tells him after James leaves to check on his own research about how he had went back into the cyberspace and found Q collapsed on the ground, Silva nowhere in sight. Apparently Silva had let him go.

"It'll be alright, he won't leave you now," Q repeats to himself after Eve leaves for a meeting with some higher-up or another. He remembers Silva, remember how desperate he was, how desperate Severine said he would be. “Why did you let me go, Raoul?”

_If I let you go, will you come back?_

* * *

(The boat rocks on the sea, and Q can’t remember how he got there.

Across him, somebody laughs. “Careful, darling,” he says, “you’ll fall over.”

Q makes to say something but a wave crashes into their little boat and he falls, he falls over.)

* * *

Life resumes.

Or rather, life begins again for him. He wakes up with blue behind his eyes, a grid sequence in the seconds of entering a room; sees Silva in a monitor, watching him with an unreadable expression on his face.

He blinks.

This is not the cyberworld, and his own face stares back.

* * *

(“Come back,” someone says.

He’s on top of a hill and a iridescent sky that slips from colour to colour effortlessly, and _oh, how familiar it is_. Q frowns at nothing in particular.

“I’m already here,” he tries to tell the person, but the person merely shushes him.

“You’ll come back,” (he, it’s a he) says confidently. “I know you will.”

A black hole yawns wide beneath Q’s feet and he falls yet again.)

* * *

He returns to his cubicle today.

Everything is arranged neatly after James’ reported rampage through all of his belongings for the slightest of clues. Q sits down on the swivel chair, turns on the computer and logs in. ‘Welcome, Mr. Q,’ the screen flashes.

On a sudden impulse, Q looks up. He looks at everyone around him - looks at his colleagues, at the very people he sees everyday but has never talked to.

He wonders if they even noticed that he was missing for half of a year.

As everyone keeps their heads down, lost in their own worlds of work, work and work, Q realises that no, they never did.

* * *

(They are in the canteen and Q sees him.

“You should eat more,” the person says.

Eve doesn’t look at him or the person who slides into the seat next to her, smiling benignly at Q. James is too busy frowning down at his tablet, catching up with the newer developments on his own project. He also does not look up.

Q swallows his mouthful of wrap. The person’s grin widens. “Good boy,” he praises, his hand reaching out to pat Q’s head and Q jerks back in reflex.

His vision tints grey for a moment; the person draws back, his hand curling from the rejection and -)

“Q!”

Eve shakes him by his shoulder and he is staring at empty space, his wrap having grown cold in his hands. She stares at him, concern splashed across her face. James is squinting at him, almost threatening.

“Sorry,” Q lies, even though he knows that anyone can see through it. “I was just lost in my thoughts.”

They can see, but no one says anything.

* * *

He sees Silva everywhere.

Out of the corner of his eyes, in the mirror as water obscures his sight for one moment, in the monitor of the computer as Q labours himself over the final report.

‘The cyberworld is a dangerous place to go to.’ He types, but that is a half-lie. The cyberworld is a brilliant, beautiful place that is capable of so, so many things. It is also a half-lie.

His hands hover over the buttons that would send the report to his superiors, but he does not click it. He does not send it. Not yet.

* * *

"You want to go back."

The way Eve says it makes it sound like both a statement and a question. Q stares at her, like a deer caught in the headlights - because does he really want to go back? Back to Silva?

_Yes_ , something whispers, something that he's not entirely sure that isn't a part of Silva the man may or may not have attached to him. The back of his neck warms.

"Do you, Q?" Eve presses, concerned - the right answer is no but the right answer is also yes. Q wants to say no, soothe her fears.

Q wants to say yes, because the voice is whispering _yesyesyes_.

"I don't know," he says. Eve regards him almost sadly, and the only reason she has risen so far up in the ranks of this company is because of how she sees through people and what they really want and need. She gives the right people what they need, never what they want (because there are ways to climb without whoring yourself out) and for that they favor her.

She sees what Q wants. But she can't tell if it's what he needs.

_You need me_ , the voice murmurs, a low hiss. _I need you_.

"Q," Eve says gently.

Q doesn't want to know his answer.  


* * *

(The lines are cut, and Q drops.)  


* * *

"It's ridiculous," James is protesting heatedly. Q rounds the corner and sees him and Eve huddled together on their lunch table, both with grim countenances. "His experiments were authorised, there's proof -"

"But ultimately no one authorised it, unless you count a madman living in a virtual landscape as one of your superiors," Eve returned. She is frustrated, but not at James. Q continues to watch them.

"The experiment was a success," James changes tack. "The existence of a cyberspace was proved. Clause 95C states that - "

"Of course you'll know what rules to break," Eve huffs in fond exasperation, but bites her lip anyway. "But it's not a success, James, unless the cyberspace is actually of some value to them - don't argue with me," she warns, "I've seen scientists in successful experiments used as fodder because their 'success' were as useful as a dung beetle - "

"Dung beetles are useful to roll shit into small balls," Q says loudly. Eve jerks as if she had been scalded and looks up at him. James just asks, "how much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that I must be in some deep shit," Q replies easily. "What happened?"

Eve closes her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. "One of the superiors are saying that since no one actually authorised your experiment, you technically broke the rules - "

"And am thus giving myself up to any other departments that are lacking in human resources," Q finished. Eve nods grimly.

James looks away.

"Well," Q says. "Shit."  


* * *

The warning comes at a time better than any other - too late and Q would have had no time to think of a way out.

"It's either you quit the company - "

"And he'll go straight into human resources," Eve interjects.

" - or you make that experiment a success in their terms," James finishes grimly. "Make yourself invaluable."

"Or go back to Silva," Q says.

"Or... Get somewhere they can't reach you," James concedes, even though his disapproval of anything to do with Silva shows as clear as day on his face.

"How can we make the experiment a success? What does the cyber world has to offer?" Eve asks.

"You can build impossible things," and he remembers twisting towers and an old abandoned village. "Artificial Intelligence is a risky subject. Physical manifestation of HTML and XML codes."

"Something that impacts the real world," James suggests seriously.

(The ocean in bright cerulean blue, information flowing and ebbing away in tides and waves, Silva parting the red walls like Moses of the Old Testament parting the Red Sea.)

"Hacking," Q utters, and they have their prize.  


* * *

 _Do you want to go back_ , Eve had asked.

_(If I let you go_ , Silva had asked, _will you come back?)_

Q says (said), " _yes._ "  


* * *

They're back in the room, all three of them.

"This is it," Q says unnecessarily.

"By Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. I loved that documentary," Eve jokes. They laugh.

"If Silva does anything, send us a message. Just walk into our computers," James says seriously.

"Emails don't work that way," Q snipes gently, until he realises that they might just work that way in the cyber world. He doesn't know.

He would find out.

"And if he doesn't, just drop by anyway," Eve says.

"If he does," James interrupts, "I have contacts to get you out of the country. We can hide you in Albania, or some isolated place."

"I'd die of Internet deficiency," Q laughs. "But thank you."

They strap Q in, and both holds one of his hands in their own. James leans over and flips the switch.

The warmth at the back of his neck feels like it's leading him home.  


* * *

Silva waits.

Q materialises in front of him. They look at each other, almost unbelieving of the circumstances that they find themselves in.

"You came back," he finally says.

"I did."

Raoul smiles. "Welcome home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Possible epilogue on the way.


End file.
